1792- grammatical disquisitions. ^79^ 



both these phrases in this case would mean the house 

 of or beiongirig^^to 'John. . The same reasoning will 

 apply to all the words above enumerated,- and it will, 

 upon investigation, be found, that they have all the 

 same relation to their respective pronouns, as the 

 variation of the noun, which gave rise to these spe- 

 culations, has to the original noun from which it is 

 derived ; though they have not been dignified with 

 the name of genitives. 



For the circumstances that constitute the difference 

 between my and mine^ thy and thine, our and ours, 6cc, 

 it is not properly oar businefs here to inquire ; nor 

 yet to fliow the exact similarity in power of the sup- 

 posed inflected Englifh genitive to both these clafses 

 of words. This may with more propriety be done 

 on some future occasion, in a separate difsertation on 

 that subject*. 



^th. If the Englifli words which gave rise to these 

 remarks deserve the name of genitives, merely be- 

 cause in some cases they are equivalent in significa- 

 tion to the genitive case of the Latins, vv€ ought, by 

 the same mode of reasoning, to allow that some Eng- 

 lifli nouns admit of a dative or ablative case, as some 

 words will be found that admit of a dative, and many 

 more of an ablative signification. Thus, a mill horse 

 means a horse for turning a mill ; a horse mill, a mill 

 to be driven by horses ; a hatid saw is a saiv to be used 



• This I fliall do in an early number of the Bee, as, from an analysis of 

 the clafs of words here specified, much light will be thrown upon a very 

 important part of our language, which has not hitherto attracted the no- 

 tice of philolugis'.s so much as it desci res. Indeed had it not been to pave 

 ti.e way for that difsertation, the present efsay, as much lefj interesting, 

 xvould have been supprcfscd. 



